Last full day in China!
Man, time has flown! We reached Chengdu last night after another mammoth bus journey (11 hours) which was thankfully quite uneventful. We're liking Chengdu a lt more the second time around - we've got checked into a really nice budget hotel - the cleanest I've seen in China! Plus the sun is shining and we seem to be in a more 'happening' area of the city.

So...Juizhagou...well we entered the park on Sunday and started walking (kind of a sly mve on our part - the bus is 90Y but you can end up getting on for free if you walk the first bit, but anyway we came here for the trekking, didn't lug my hiking boots halfway round the world for nothing!). Unfortunately it was bucketing out of the heavens so after an hour we hadn't seen much and we were soaked...time for plan B. So walked to the next bus-stop point, hopped on and it took us past all the sights. The scenery there is definitely rather unique - amazing waterfalls, beautiful lakes with amazingly blue water - and all set against the backdrop of stunning mountains. But basically Jiuzhaigou is Chinese tourism at its very worst - the park has been designed with the tourist in mind, not the trekker. It's not the kind of place where you can commune with nature because you're sharing it with millions of Chinese tourists and their umbrellas. I spent most of my time concentrating on ensuring that I would come home with 2 eyeballs! We were supposed to go into the park again on Monday but just couldn't face it so got the first bus out of town instead! We'll rely on our postcards to show the beauties of the place. Ah well, you live and learn - all part of the amazing experience called travel.